


Eventually

by AdamantSteve



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternative universe: zombies, Angst, Apocalypse, M/M, Pining, Zombies, letter format, missing the one you love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-05
Updated: 2013-01-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 17:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/624521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdamantSteve/pseuds/AdamantSteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's letters to Steve during the zombie apocalypse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eventually

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_jack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_jack/gifts).



> This is kinda sad because, well, apocalypse. But it ends on a hopeful note!
> 
> This is a response to [blue_jack's amazing letters from Steve to Tony](http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/1099899), which you really ought to read first (it's a short read!) 
> 
> Beta thanks to [Dunicha](http://dunicha.tumblr.com).
> 
> This is also the first fill for my [Trope Bingo card](http://adamantsteve.tumblr.com/post/39529866934/woohoo-got-my-bingo-card-from-this-bingo-thing) for the 'AU: Other' space.

Follow up to this [short story](../chapters/1099899) of Steve’s letters to Tony during a zombie apocalypse.

 

 

 

Steve,

I'm sorry I didn't write before. I am mad at you, but the longer you're away the less I can remember why. You were just being you in answering the call to help, and as much as I didn't want you to go, it's why I love you, I guess. I know I wouldn't have gone and I feel kind of pathetic for not being that guy, but then I suppose that's what you've come to expect of me too. Pretty much everyone's a coward compared to you. 

Bruce and I (plus Reed and some SHIELD techs) have been toiling away over microscopes trying to work out what it IS. I feel kind of redundant, honestly. Maybe once they figure out what it is I can help more. I've been working on making nanobots but until there's something for them to do, they're just swimming around doing nothing, like I am.

Electricity is gold dust around here, so we ration it as much as we can. What I wouldn't give for a heap of palladium, or plutonium even! I'd make the greatest backup generator the world has ever seen! As it is, we work during daylight and everything's handwritten (Bruce is in his element). We save power for the lab equipment and that's pretty much all. It is annoying but in a weird way it reminds me of you. So much of all this reminds me of you, Steve. Stories you've told me about the war, make do and mend, all that. I keep wondering if this is what it felt like back then, the fear that kind of becomes like background noise to every day life. And the way every day life is anything but.

Anyway, I'm not mad at you anymore, not in any way that really matters. I want you to come home. Just come home and we can lock ourselves away and just hold on to each other til it's all over. I know you won't but I wish you would.

 

I love you,

Tony

 

\----

 

Dear Steve,

I don't know if you got my last letter or not, though I almost hope not, if your lack of response is indicative that you're mad at me. I'm sorry for the things I said when you left. I know it's hardwired in you to be a fucking boy scout and do your ‘duty’. I don't know what you expect of me though, I'm not going to wave you off to face the zombie hordes willingly no matter what the circumstances, I'm just not. 

I can't be happy about you leaving me. 

I keep thinking about if you got hurt and what would happen. Would the serum stop it? Would the serum make it worse? Would you turn into some kind of super zombie? I asked Bruce and he didn't have any answers. I think he's been wondering the same thing about himself. 

I feel so useless here, Steve. I should have come with you. Or made you some weapons or just tied you up so you couldn't leave. 

But then you'd have hated me. I hope you don't hate me now. I really am sorry for the things I said. 

 

Yours,

Tony

 

\----

 

Dear Steve,  

I have no idea if you'll hear about it wherever you are, but the Compound was overrun AND it went up in flames. One begat the other until there was pretty much nothing left. Once it started to look hopeless Fury hustled the few he could into this underground bunker which he'd been keeping under wraps til then, the snake. 

Bruce's notes (and Bruce) are ok, and there's a (small) lab for further work. We'll have to find new samples though, which I don't relish the thought of. They used to be people, you know? Actual living breathing people like you and me. But it's no good thinking of it like that I suppose. Not if you want to stay on this side of the equation. A whole lot of people didn't make it.

I wish I knew where you were. I flew around in the suit a few times in the idle hope that I'd see you, but all I can see is desolation and packs of the things roaming around like marauding teens or mall joggers. Remember malls? God that seems like something from a million years ago. 

I don't know why I'm writing this, we're pretty locked down in the bunker and since being cut off I don't even know the direction you guys would be in, and there's hardly a postal service anymore no matter what their motto is. Was.   

I miss talking to you so much, Steve. I miss the sex and all (boy do I miss that) but just hearing your voice and seeing you in the morning are what I miss the most. Me working and you sitting close by doing something or other. Those companionable silences that aren't really anything except that they really are. Were.  

Until the food runs out in this place I know I'll stay alive, assuming it doesn't get overrun too, and because you're you, I'm sure you will too. We just have to wait it out. That's what I keep thinking about anyway. Eventually I'll see you again. Maybe we'll both be old (or I will at least, I bet you stay looking 27 forever) but that'll be ok. As soon as we figure out what to do we'll do it, and then we can find each other again like we did the first time. And then I really will never let you go. 

 

I love you and miss you,

Tony

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
